The present invention is directed to so-called child-proof closures for pill bottles and the like, and particularly to improvements in such closures rendering the contents of a container utilizing such closures to be more accessible to adults and elderly individuals.
The problem of restricting the access of infants to medicine bottles is well known. In response to a developing problem of accidental poisonings of infants by household prescription drugs resulted in the substantially universal use of child-proof closures designed to frustrate opening of the container by infants and small children. Commonly utilized designs of such child-proof closures include caps that are required to be aligned in a specific rotational orientation to permit opening, caps that require downward pressure on the top of the cap to engage an inner cap for the necessary unscrewing rotations, or to release the cap from a locking device. While many of these known child-proof closure designs are reasonably effective for their primary intended purposes, an unwanted side effect has been to make the medicine containers difficult for many adults to open, particularly the elderly, persons with poor eyesight or physical problems with their hands, for example. A result of this is that, in many households, adults who have difficulty opening "child-proof" containers, may tend to simply remove the caps and leave the bottle open, totally defeating the purpose of providing the child-proof closure in the first place. The problem currently is recognized as becoming increasingly serious because of a demographic trend for grandparents and grandchildren to be living in the same households.
In accordance with the present invention, a novel and improved form of child-proof bottle closure is provided, which, while being entirely effective to frustrate removal by infants and young children, is "senior-friendly" in that it can be easily removed and replaced by the elderly, as well as persons with a variety of disabilities. In particular, the cap of the invention is designed to require insertion of a single finger into the upper end of the cap, in order to release its locking mechanism. The cap, when thus released, grips the finger and is removed from the container by the simple act of withdrawing the finger from the neck of the container. All that is necessary for an adult to remove the cap is insertion of the finger into the cap and subsequent withdrawal of the finger, bringing with it the cap.
Pursuant to the invention, the dimensions of the cap are such that it cannot be released by insertion of an infant's finger into the entry of the cap. Indeed, if the infant's finger is inserted sufficiently far into the cap, it will tend, if anything, to lock the cap tighter to the neck of the bottle.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention and to the accompanying drawings.